A preliminary economic assessment of New Gold’s Blackwater gold project, shown here in aerial view, forecasts a
$1.8-billion expenditure for development of a 500,000+ oz/y open-pit mine and mill. (Photo courtesy of New Gold Inc.)

The Blackwater mineral resource esti-mate is based on a block model estimate that incorporates more than 147,282 indi-vidual assays from 168,709 m of diamond drill core in 449 drill holes. Average drill-hole spacing of approximately 50 m is suf-ficient to support mineral resource estima-tion up to the indicated category.

Mining operations will be carried out with an initial equipment fleet of two 311-mm electric blast-hole drills, two 56-m3 electric cable shovels, one 18-m 3front-end loader, and 16 290-mt trucks. A 10-m bench height was selected for mining.

The 60,000-mt/d processing plant will utilize conventional crushing, grinding, leaching, and carbon-in-pulp (CIP) to produce a gold-silver doré. A gravity circuit consisting of centrifugal concentrators will treat a portion of the primary cyclone underflow to recover coarse metallic gold. The gravity concentrate will be directed to an intensive cyanidation reactor for extrac-tion of gold and silver. Ground material will be directed to a leach feed thickener, then to a leaching and CIP extraction circuit.

Extracted gold and silver will be released from carbon in the stripping columns and recovered by electrowinning before being smelted into a gold-silver doré product. Stripped carbon will be treated in a regeneration kiln.

The Blackwater project is located approximately 112 km southwest of Vanderhoof, British Columbia, and is close to existing infrastructure. Access to low-cost hydroelectric power is available and will require the construction of a 133-km transmission line.

Based on the success of its 2012 sum-mer exploration campaign, New Gold increased its 2012 Blackwater exploration drilling target to more than 250,000 m from the previous target of 210,000 m. Since the mid-May PEA mineral resource cut-off, the company has drilled an addi-tional 100,363 m in 377 holes. As of late September, there were 13 drills active at the Blackwater site.

“The completion of the Blackwater PEA and upcoming filing of our project descrip-tion will allow us to formally begin the per-mitting process for Blackwater,” New Gold President and CEO Robert Gallagher said. “With the benefit of our permitting and development track record and strong stake-holder relationships at New Afton and in the Blackwater area, we look forward to advancing Blackwater with similar success.”